Data from India’s 39-member Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) for the first five months of fiscal year 2011-2012 indicate a decline in the industry’s loan portfolio. Continue Reading »

Dr Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Bangladeshi microfinance institution (MFI) Grameen Bank, recently argued that the Arab world has “misinterpreted the system’s true principles” by operating it as a “charity affair” [1]. Continue Reading »

The Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI), an affiliate of US-based nonprofit ACCION International, recently released a report titled “Opportunities and Obstacles to Financial Inclusion”, that identifies client financial education as the top opportunity in the microfinance sphere [1]. Continue Reading »

Swiss Re, a global reinsurer, announced during the recent 2011 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting its commitment to provide insurance against cholera for Haitian women entrepreneurs and an “insurance for work” program intended to help farmers in Senegal maintain food and income security amidst climate change. Continue Reading »

Financial Independence Through Entrepreneurship (FITE), an online lending platform designed by US-based microfinance intermediary Kiva, has been established by US-based skincare brand Dermalogica to raise money for on-lending to women worldwide to invest in their businesses. Continue Reading »

Indian rural finance practitioner Mr Ramesh S Arunachalam recently addressed the need for due diligence in the business correspondent (BC) model that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India’s central banking authority, adopted in 2010 to increase financial access for low-income people [1]. Continue Reading »

An opinion piece by Rural Finance Practitioner Ramesh S Arunachalam that was recently published in Indian personal finance magazine Moneylife highlights the importance of management information systems (MIS) to microfinance institutions (MFIs) and calls for the establishment of minimum MIS standards as a prerequisite for MFI accreditation in India. Continue Reading »

Published by the Western Hemisphere Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as IMF Working Paper No. WP/11/175, 2011, 41 pages, available at: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2011/wp11175.pdf Continue Reading »

In a recent statement, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a UK-based development finance institution, announced that it has signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with the African Development Bank (AfDB), a multilateral financial institution based in Tunisia, and the Islamic Development Bank, a development finance institution based in Saudi Arabia, to outline how the institutions would cooperate in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region as EBRD extends its operation in the region to support the emerging Arab democracies [1]. Continue Reading »

The US-based nonprofit Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) has released two papers that offer insight into different issues faced by microfinance institutions (MFIs). Continue Reading »

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Andhra Pradesh, India, have started talks to recover outstanding loans amounting to INR 7,000 crore (approximately USD 1.4 billion), which they have been unable to collect since the repayment dropoff in the state started in 2010. Continue Reading »

A recent study by the US-based nonprofit Grameen Foundation titled “Rapid Response in the Wake of Disaster: Using the PPI to Design and Support Fonkoze’s Earthquake Recovery Program,” describes how Fonkoze, a Haitian microfinance institution (MFI), is using the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI), a country-specific poverty assessment tool, in disaster affected areas to monitor and evaluate the progress of its clients [1]. Continue Reading »

In a recent paper, “Finance and Development: A Tale of Two Sectors,” published in the academic journal American Economic Review, researchers affiliated with the US-based nonprofit Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty (CFSP), conclude that poor access to financing opportunities in developing countries makes it harder for entrepreneurs to start large-scale businesses like manufacturing [1]. Continue Reading »

Grameen Foundation, a US-based nonprofit organization that supports microfinance institutions (MFIs), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a government agency that provides international economic and humanitarian assistance, will respectively provide credit guarantees worth USD 300,000 and USD 1.2 million to Cooperative de Ahorro y Credito Abaco, a Peruvian credit union. Continue Reading »

In a presentation at the recent Toronto International Microfinance Summit, panelists weighed in on a range of current topics in the microfinance sector, including profitability, the effect of commercial investment and advances in technology. Continue Reading »

Kiva, a US-based online portal allowing individuals to make loans to microfinance institutions (MFIs), recently posted a video simulation of the flow of funds between its lenders and borrowers across the globe from its incorporation in 2005 until 2011. Continue Reading »

Self-help groups (SHGs) in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh will soon have an alternative source of microloans in the form of Stree Nidhi, a cooperative microfinance bank that has been formed by the state government and the Mandal Mahila Samkhyas (MMS), a representative federation of SHGs. Continue Reading »

Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an effort established by former US President Bill Clinton in 2005 to bring together a community of global leaders to alleviate poverty, create a cleaner environment and increase access to health care and education, is holding its 2011 Annual Meeting in New York City, US, from September 20 to September 22, 2011.   Continue Reading »